Thursday, June 22, 2006

Spread the Word - More of the Same

I hope the various power brokers conencted to the Democratic party are paying attention to the meme suggestions coming out of the left blogosphere the last few days. There's been a number of very good ones. Begala offers one on TPM Cafe, Josh echoes it, and Sherrod Brown, who will be Ohio's newest senator come November, adds some more. Begala nails the central point about the Iraq debate in Congress:

The media are hyperventilating about “Democrats in disarray” over the war in Iraq. ABC’s “The Note” captures the stupidity, vapidity and gullibility of the mainstream media perfectly: “Democrats can deny it all they want (and not all do. . .), but they are on the precipice of self-immolating over the issue that has most crippled the Bush presidency and of making facts on the ground virtually meaningless. In other words, they are on the precipice of making Iraq a 2006 political winner for the Republican Party.”

I’m sure I’ve read a dopier statement of conventional wisdom, a more perfect transcription of Karl Rove’s ignorant talking points, but I really can’t remember when.

As usual, the Smart Guys have it backwards. Democrats can and will win the Iraq debate if they embrace the fact that they disagree and contrast it with the slavish, mindless rubber-stamp Republicans.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid is doing a Herculean job of herding cats onto the Levin proposal, which calls for a timetable to redeploy troops, but no strict deadline. Good for him. That’s what leadership is all about.

But it’s still a reality that Democrats like Russ Feingold and John Kerry support a date certain for America’s withdrawal from Iraq, while most of their Senate Democratic colleagues do not. So, rather than deny or ignore the disagreement, Democrats should highlight it, celebrate it, emphasize it.

The only place in the American government where there is an honest and spirited debate over Iraq is within the Democratic Party. Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer are not on the same page – and that’s a good thing. Hillary Clinton and John Kerry disagree. Hooray for that.

If anyone tells you the solution to Iraq is easy or obvious, they’re a liar or a fool (a false choice in the case of our president). So why not feature the debate? At least someone is debating what to do.

The fact is the American people want a new direction in Iraq, and the Democrats offer several. The Republicans, on the other hand, offer nothing more than a four-word strategy: more of the same.

GOP on Iraq = More of the Same

What is worst about the "more of the same" stance is that it consigns hundreds more American soldiers to debilitation, death and dismemberment so George Bush doesn't have to admit he fucked up. Think about that. President Cut and Run wants other people's loved ones to be crippled and killed so he can play tough.

Are we going to see another five week presidential vacation again this year? More of the same of George sitting on his ass while other Americans suffer?

Democrats, don't even bother to answer asinine questions from the press about cut and run - the only cut and run going on is the Republicans cutting themselves more slack and running the country and George Bush's war into the ground. It's just more of the same ineffective chest thumping we've seen for the last four years.

Anglachel

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